Quotes about illegal
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P. J. O'Rourke photo

“You know, if government were a product, selling it would be illegal.”

P. J. O'Rourke (1947) American journalist

The Liberty Manifesto (1993)

Mitt Romney photo

“Look, you can't have any illegals working on our property. I'm running for office, for Pete's sake.”

Mitt Romney (1947) American businessman and politician

CNN Republican presidential debate, Los Angeles, , quoted in
2011
Context: Rick, I don't think I've ever hired an illegal in my life... We had a lawn company to mow our lawn, and they had illegal immigrants, and when that was pointed out to us, we let them go... So we went to the company and we said, "Look, you can't have any illegals working on our property. I'm running for office, for Pete's sake. I can't have illegals."

Piero Scaruffi photo

“Why are there age limits? why is it illegal to marry a 12-year old?”

Piero Scaruffi (1955) Italian writer

Context: Why are there age limits? why is it illegal to marry a 12-year old? Helen of Troy was 12. Juliet and Cleopatra were still teenagers when they became famous. Most heroines of classic novels and poems were underage by today's laws. Thomas Edison married a 16-year-old. Medical studies show that the best age for a woman to have children is between 15 and 25 (lowest chances of miscarriage, of birth defects and, last but not least, of the woman dying while giving birth); while the worst age is after the mid 30s. And the younger you are, the more likely you are to cement a real friendship with your children; the older you are, the more likely that the "generational gap" will hurt your children's psychology. Therefore it is much more natural to have a child at 16 than at 40.

Jesse Ventura photo

“I don't support abortion. I could never participate in one. But I think it would be a mistake to make them illegal again.”

Jesse Ventura (1951) American politician and former professional wrestler

I Ain't Got Time To Bleed (1999)
Context: I don't support abortion. I could never participate in one. But I think it would be a mistake to make them illegal again. What criminalization will do is force women into garages and back alleys, and then you're going to have two lives in jeopardy. My mom, who was a nurse, used to talk about the messes that would come in after back-alley abortions went wrong. The way to stop abortion is to deal, philosophically and spiritually, with the people who get them. And that's not something government can touch.

Timo Soini photo

“There are human traffickers and people smugglers, organised activities. The President even spoke of escorts and queues. Everything suggests that it is illegal organised immigration and it should be stopped”

Timo Soini (1962) Finnish politician

Soini on organized crime behind Russian borders, quoted on Yle.Fi, "Foreign Minister Soini: Organised crime behind Russian border crossings" http://yle.fi/uutiset/foreign_minister_soini_organised_crime_behind_russian_border_crossings/8618228, February 22, 2016
Context: At the time we didn’t make any satisfactory progress, but we at the Foreign Ministry, Interior Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office are in constant dialogue with Russia. The President and President Putin are also in regular phone contact. We’re in the kind of situation where things can’t continue or worsen. If we don’t go forward by negotiating then it will be time for harsher measures. There are human traffickers and people smugglers, organised activities. The President even spoke of escorts and queues. Everything suggests that it is illegal organised immigration and it should be stopped.

“If someone is abusing you, or doing something illegal, or even something you refuse to tolerate, and it's still continuing, that is not an issue of forgiveness, that is an issue of making sure that stops”

Ysabella Brave (1979) American singer

"Forgiveness" (7 July 2007) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVwUSubBH6k
Context: I am speaking of something that is no longer happening — that is not currently going on. If someone is abusing you, or doing something illegal, or even something you refuse to tolerate, and it's still continuing, that is not an issue of forgiveness, that is an issue of making sure that stops — even if you have to get away from that situation — that's very important.

“The way that Russia seized Crimea by force from Ukraine this March was hostile and extremely illegal”

Max Fisher American journalist

Source: Max Fisher, "So should Crimea be part of Russia or Ukraine?" http://www.vox.com/cards/ukraine-everything-you-need-to-know/so-should-crimea-be-part-of-russia-or-ukraine (3 September 2014), Vox
Context: The way that Russia seized Crimea by force from Ukraine this March was hostile and extremely illegal... A poll found that 41 percent of Crimeans wanted the region to become part of Russia. That's an awful lot; but it's still not a majority. Crimea's March referendum on leaving Ukraine for Russia ostensibly garnered 97 percent support, but it occurred in a rush, without international monitors, and under Russian military occupation. A draft U. N. investigative report found that critics of secession within Crimea were detained and tortured in the days before the vote; it also found 'many reports of vote-rigging'. Had the referendum been held in a transparent and legal manner, it's not clear which way the vote would have gone.

Aristotle photo
Arun Shourie photo

“The fatwas reflect this belief in double standards. The differential attitude to conversion and apostasy illustrates this vividly. Islam regards it as a right and duty to convert persons from other religions. The ulema vehemently insist on it....Exactly the same position holds in regard to doing something or refraining from doing something out of regard for the other person’s religious sentiments.....An even more vivid instance is the stance in regard to the continuation of religious practices. It is the right and duty of a Muslim to carry on his religious rituals. ...Under no circumstances can the Islamic ruler give permission to kafirs to continue their religious rites, declares the Fatawa-i-Rizvia, and asks: shall he permit them to practise their kufr and thereby himself become a kafir?...It adds that there are several Hadis to the effect that no non-Muslim should remain in the Arab island...So, no non-Muslim shall be allowed to stay in the Arab island, but if a Bangladeshi who has entered India illegally is asked to leave, that is an assault on Islam!...Similarly, even today in no Islamic state can teachers in a school impart religious education of their faith to non-Muslim children...No restriction can be tolerated on teaching of the Quran and on religious instruction, declares Kifayatullah. ...And yet if we were to go by secularist discourse there is no religion which has abolished distinctions as Islam has, there is no religion which treats all equally as Islam does!”

Arun Shourie (1941) Indian journalist and politician

The World of Fatwas (Or The Shariah In Action)

Nicolás Maduro photo
Nicolás Maduro photo
Bernie Sanders photo
Jack Vance photo

“A detached attitude toward the problems of others is not illegal.”

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Killing Machine (1964), Chapter 3 (p. 180)

Tulsi Gabbard photo

“Here we go again! The US sending more troops to Middle East for what will be disastrous war with Iran. To prevent Trump and future presidents from waging war illegally (without Congress approval) we must sign my No More Presidential Wars Act.”

Tulsi Gabbard (1981) U.S. Representative from Hawaii's 2nd congressional district

Twitter post https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard, (18 Jun 2019)
Twitter account, June 2019

Fidel Castro photo

“An illegal monument to the British talent for binge drinking and vandalising public property.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Cut It Out (2004)

Roberto Saviano photo

“Unlawful revenue which, after being conveniently cleaned, is then reinvested within the legal economy: polluting it, corrupting it, forging it, killing it. Whether it’s reinvested in the London property market, in Parisian restaurants, or in hostels on the French Riviera. Drug trafficking money will buy homes that honest folk can no longer afford; it will open shops that will sell at more competitive prices than legitimate shops; it will start businesses that can afford to be more competitive than clean businesses. But one thing must be clear: these businesses are not interested in being successful; the main purpose for which they were created was to launder money, turning money that shouldn’t even exist into clean and usable money. In silence, illegal assets are moving around and undermining our economy and our democracies. In silence. But it doesn’t stop here; organised crime is providing us with a winning economic model. Organised crime is the only segment of global economy to have not been affected by the financial crisis; to have profited from the crisis, to have fed on the crisis, to have contributed to the crisis. And it’s in the crisis that it finds its satellite activities, such as usury, gambling, counterfeiting. But the most important – and most alarming – aspect of this issue is that it’s exactly in times of crisis that criminal organisations find their safe haven in banks.”

Roberto Saviano (1979) Italian journalist, writer and essayist

Dirty Money in London event (2016)

Robert Lynn Asprin photo

“He’ll get a life sentence for the illegal trafficking alone and probably a death sentence for the people he killed along the way.”

Robert Lynn Asprin (1946–2008) American science fiction and fantasy author

He sighed slightly. “I always did fancy happy endings.”
Source: Wagers of Sin (1996), Chapter 21 (p. 430)

Roy Moore photo

“Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus. There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.”

Roy Moore (1947) American former judge

Jim Ziegler, Alabama state auditor, in [2017-11-09, Philip Wegmann, Alabama state auditor defends Roy Moore against sexual allegations, invokes Mary and Joseph, The Washington Examiner, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/alabama-state-auditor-defends-roy-moore-against-sexual-allegations-invokes-mary-and-joseph/article/2640217]

Doug Stanhope photo

“All illegal narcotics are medicinal. Boredom is a disease worse than cancer.”

Doug Stanhope (1967) American stand-up comedian, actor, and author

Drugs cure it, with little or no side effects if used as directed. Life's temporary for a reason, it gets boring after awhile. You should be inventing new drugs is what you should be doing! Newer, crazier drugs... and more holes, that's what you ladies need!
Deadbeat Hero (2004)

James P. Gray photo
James P. Gray photo
James P. Gray photo

“The most widely used 'illegal' drug is marijuana, yet, by every measure, it is much less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. In my 30 adult years, this gross injustice has turned me very cynical toward the government.”

James P. Gray (1945) American judge

“Transcript of Judge James P. Gray's Visit to the Drug Policy Forum,” The New York Times, (June 14, 2001) https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/14/national/transcript-of-judge-james-p-grays-visit-to-the-drug-policy-forum.html

Alfred de Zayas photo
Philip Giraldi photo
Deng Feng-Zhou photo

“Public servants are not entitled to abuse their power to do anything illegal.
Writers are not supposed to misuse their flair to elicit evil thoughts.
Professionals are never easy to cultivate.
Immoral is one when he applies his knowledge to the breachment of morality and law.”

Deng Feng-Zhou (1949) Chinese poet, Local history writer, Taoist Neidan academics and Environmentalist.

(zh-TW) 持槍作盜進行侵,利筆文章誨殺淫。
技藝人才培不易,植因造業孽緣深。

"Professional morality" (專業道德)

Source: Deng Feng-Zhou, "Deng Feng-Zhou Classical Chinese Poetry Anthology". Volume 6, Tainan, 2018: 84.

Rodrigo Duterte photo

“If I become president, I advise you people to put up several funeral parlor businesses because I am against illegal drugs... I might kill someone because of it.”

Rodrigo Duterte (1945) Filipino politician and the 16th President of the Philippines

Duterte: If I win, better put up more funeral parlors https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2015/11/26/1526317/duterte-if-i-win-better-put-more-funeral-parlors(November 26, 2015)

Melania Trump photo

“The American people deserve fair elections. Every legal - not illegal - vote should be counted. We must protect our democracy with complete transparency.”

Melania Trump (1970) Slovenian model, wife of Donald Trump and First Lady of the United States

via tweet https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/1325509832594616328 On November 8, 2020
2020

Dorothy Thompson photo
Mitch McConnell photo
Maximilien Robespierre photo
Maximilien Robespierre photo

“For all these things have been illegal, as illegal as the Revolution, as the fall of the Monarchy and of the Bastille, as illegal as liberty itself... Citizens, did you want a revolution without a revolution?”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Misc Quotes
Original: (fr) Citoyens, vouliez-vous une révolution sans révolution?

Maximilien Robespierre photo

“For all these things have been illegal, as illegal as the Revolution, as the fall of the Monarchy and of the Bastille, as illegal as liberty itself”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Misc Quotes
Original: (fr) Citoyens, vouliez-vous une révolution sans révolution?

Elvis Costello photo

“Nice girls, not one with a defect,
Cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct.
Red dogs under illegal legs,
She looks so good that he gets down and begs.She is watching the detectives.
"Ooh, it's so cute."”

Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter

She's watching the detectives.
When they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.
They beat him up until the teardrops start,
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart.
Song lyrics
Source: Watching the Detectives (1977)

Scott Adams photo
Bruce Schneier photo

“It's certainly easier to implement bad security and make it illegal for anyone to notice than it is to implement good security.”

Bruce Schneier (1963) American computer scientist

Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World - Bruce Schneier
Cryptography

Matt Gaetz photo

“Illegal aliens have destroyed some of the most critical monarch butterfly habitats in the world. I bet you didn’t know that.”

Matt Gaetz (1982) American politician and member of the United States House of Representatives

"Matt Gaetz’s Claim That Migrants Are Killing Monarch Butterflies Is Utter Bullsh*t" https://www.thedailybeast.com/matt-gaetzs-claim-that-migrants-are-killing-monarch-butterflies-is-utter-bullsht, The Daily Beast, 26 July 2022